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theory has 2 distinct synonyms spread across 1 of its 3 senses. Each sense below keeps its own list, because a synonym belongs to a meaning and not to a word: swapping one sense's substitute into another sense's sentence is how a thesaurus makes writing worse. WordNet records no antonym for it — antonymy is a relation between word forms rather than concepts, so it is deliberately sparse.
Counts are distinct word forms across every sense. A synonym that appears under three senses is counted once here and shown three times below, under each sense it belongs to.
a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena
“theories can incorporate facts and laws and tested hypotheses”
a tentative insight into the natural world; a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena
“a scientific hypothesis that survives experimental testing becomes a scientific theory”
Synonyms, antonyms and the broader and narrower relations for theory come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Full sources and licences.